Post
by Eric Esche » Wed May 09, 2012 7:15 pm
It helps that I have a tandem partner who thinks like this most of the time, but even when Solo, I try to pick up the trash that we find. Admittedly, sometimes I am hurting enough that I will pass on trying to get something out of a rootball in fast current, or having to climb up a steep bank, but paddling with others who are willing to wait on you while you do get that one piece of trash is supportive of the effort even if they do not go after the trash themselves.
On my last HW 14 to Rush trip, I got all visible trash on both sides excepting one tire, that I did not have the tools with me to dig out, but I did "mark" it for my next trip and told others of it. What was telling to me, was that it was almost all OLD trash, stuff that was farther away from the water and obviously not new, that last 1% that most folks would ignore. Efforts by many people add up and make it easier to keep clean.
On my trip down the Kings last Wednesday while we were scouting for the whitewater school alternative teaching sites, I picked up half a bag of trash and one tire, but felt guilty having left 19 tires and then a trash dump we found where the Kings river is eroding away an old dump site on the left bank. Again, we marked it for future reference and told folks about it. Those 1/2 bags of trash were probably 30 stops each, but every little bit helps, and this section now appears much cleaner, other than the noted tires and trash site. Having everyone on the trip (Arthur Bowie, Tom Burroughs, and Chris) also pick up trash and take note of what they could not get, while they were primarily looking for instruction sites tells you something about our ACC leaders. They care.
Same story on my trips with Al Donaldson down Little Sugar and Indian creeks the week before, and my previous runs this spring down Big Sugar, the lower Elk, and the Upper Elk.
Take multiple mesh bags with you and then try to fill them. Empty your mesh bags at the end of a trip and collect more bags when folks leave them as they are recyclable and can be used many times. I probably have 50 bags now stockpiled, so I can pass them out to folks who forget to bring one and always have more than one each for me and Mary.
For serious river clean ups, I bring a variety of "tools".
I have a 10 foot 2"x2" wooden pole with a fishing net bolted on one end and a hook on the other.This is great for cans and other things deeper than I can reach, to reach up on banks, and into rootballs and log piles, or places that look "snakey" or are muddy, where I do not want to go.
I carry an entrenching shovel and a hoe for digging out partially buried stuff, like sheet metal and tires.
I carry a small folding saw and a machete for cutting wood and roots that are pinning things.
Sometimes I carry a Z-drag kit or parts there of to pull apart a log pile that has stuff in it we want to carry out.
Also carry a bag of ropes to secure things on top of my canoe. Have carried out 5 pieces of canoes since last fall, mostly with my solo canoe, just because I could, but sometimes because I wanted parts off of the wreckages for salvage so they would not be wasted, Things like seats, thwarts, endplates, motor mounts.
I carry suncreen, big shade hat, bug repellant, and a well stocked cooler in my canoe for a clean up trip. Sometimes picking up trash can be a hot and thirsy job. Whistle for calling for more help on large objects works too.
Cowper has inspired me to pursue aquiring all the parts for a twin canoe rig with trolling motor for getting BIG stuff off of the rivers we paddle. He bolts two similar canoes together side by side with 2x4's and then adds an electric trolling motor to power it. Works great and I look forward to using my rig after I recover from rotator cuff surgery this summer. Will use it before then if we get enough water in a river to float it.
And you do not have to be in a canoe to pick up stuff. Mary and I routinely pick up stuff on Beaver Lake in our sea kayaks. Our personal best for one outting was 16 bags and miscellaneous other things like broken chairs, barbed wire, rafts, kids portapotties, and scrap plastic tied down on top of our two sea kayaks and brought back over 4 miles in winds gusting to 35MPH. We now also carry large coffee cans in the back of our boats on each trip just for broken glass, a pet peeve of ours. Could not have brought all this stuff back if we had not carried the bags and rope to tie it down with.
Hope to see several of you on the Buffalo River clean up on Wednesday May 16th at Tyler Bend.
Eric Esche
There are some thoughts in the conservation report in the latest Paddler that echo Cowper's advice. Check it out if you haven't already.
